Making a New Start in Spain

The winds are changing and so must I.

There are a few moments in every person’s life when they need to take stock of what is happening in their life and where they need to go next.

Routines are funny things – they can provide equal measures of security and ennui. For the last year I’ve been content with the shape of my own routine, but there’s a cloying feeling at the nape of my neck each morning that tells me that I need to change.

My lifestyle has transformed quite dramatically over the course of my professional career. I made my way in the world initially by working in law. I can’t say that the daily rigmarole of office life or petty disputes was that thrilling to me, but I always understood it was a means to an end. That end was a stable of my own horses, which I could ride at my leisure in the glorious English countryside.

Through the endless hours of late nights, sipping down instant coffee whilst scratching my head over a difficult case, I would tell myself that all this toil would be worth it. When all I could see when I closed my eyes was strip lights and lines of legislature – I took a breath of fresh air and imagined the peace and tranquillity of my future stables. Acres of fields for miles around, a team of riders, trainers and stable hands dedicated to the well being of the horses living there and the development of riding skills. I knew that patience would see me through the mire of my predicament and that this bright, happy future would not be too far off.

I wasn’t wrong. Today every breath I take is fresh. The team of dedicated equine professionals that I yearned for all work for me and I’m happy to say that the horses in my care are in excellent shape. I spent the best part of a decade saving and preparing so that I could be in this position and this last year has felt like a dream. Setting up the stables and assembling a team of wonderful people to help me has been the culmination of years of work, but I now I feel like I need a new challenge.

In the last few months, I’ve been receiving messages from a Spanish Equestrian School. They’re looking for new management (as well as someone proficient in Social Media and SEO Marketing) and even if I don’t speak a word of Spanish, they’re insisting that I’m the best person for the job. Initially, I chose to kindly decline their offer. I’d not even spent a year in my own stable, an enterprise that I’d spent my entire professional career saving for, so the idea of abandoning it now and up sticks and moving to Spain, seemed reckless at best.

That was a few months ago, though and regardless of how old you get, a lot can change in the space of a month.

There wasn’t a point when I stopped enjoying riding my horses around this beautiful country side, but I felt a sense of detachment that certainly wasn’t there beforehand. When I should have been completely in the moment, speeding along an empty bridleway at 6am, I felt my mind drifting off to what it would be like to be doing the same thing on a recently broken stallion, along a dusty Spanish trail.

Returning from my ride, I’d look around at the hustle and bustle that I’d created and I could tell that they’d be fine without me.